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Pot Bust Blog Bustle

Man the news hounds have been having a field day as the long rumored Fed raid on Humboldt County has finally come to pass. A couple of local blogs have really been busy. The Humboldt Herald, always a stew of opinion has been gathering news snippets from various sources.Â But the NCJ Blogthing has really been burning it up. And poor Hank Sims is trying to get out of town. Cruel ironyÂ that he’s taking his first vacation in years as one of the biggest stories of the year unfolds.

Radio waves have been buzzing as well. KHUM has been following the story and according to Hank,Â “tomorrow morning at 9:00 on 94.1 KSLG, John Matthews will receive an update on Operation Southern Sweep from FBI Special Agent Joseph Schadler.”

Marijuana is harmless compared to the scourge of crystal meth in Northern California. How about respecting California’s Prop 215, and going after the methamphetamine labs instead? It’s been reported there are as many as 50 meth labs near the mouth of the Klamath River, yet law enforcement never takes any action there:

According to the Del Norte Sheriff’s Department, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department and Larry Hand of the California Conservation Corps (CCC), a CCC crew run by John Buttons discovered several large glass flasks used for cooking methamphetamine on Ohpah Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River just 21 miles from the mouth of the river. The flasks were found in the summer of 2002 and were left on Simpson Timber Company land above the Ohpah Creek Ranch. It now turns out the flasks were part of what is known as a “meth dump.” That is where the unused residue and cooking utensils from labs are discarded. A Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department official used a recent dumpsite at Colusa, to explain, “Mexican nationals had dumped their old chemicals and supplies into an irrigation canal.”

Two persons interviewed claimed there are five meth labs between Weitchpec and the river mouth. One of the labs is known to both civilian and law enforcement as the “Crystal Palace.” When asked, one Siskiyou County law enforcement official said, “If the truth were know, there are probably 50 labs.” … The entire 41 miles of river between Weitchpec and the river mouth has no roads and is completely isolated from any civilization.

There are dozens of documented cases of Mexican and Asian drug cartels using remote areas to both grow marijuana, and manufacture meth. These cases include the Klamath River area. This has resulted in concerns for the safety of all users; either national forests and/or Bureau of Land Management lands or those who simply explore for recreation.

Blog Reader

7/1/2008 at 2:53 pm

There was another blog covering opinions and some of the story: http://news.humcounty.com/ has rather different insights and opinions than the other local bloggers.

Jim Davis

1/8/2009 at 9:19 pm

Fuck the nazis, life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness, oh smoke your cigs and drink your beer but they will throw your ass in jail for weed, hypocrites. been smoking 40 years so fuck them. Jim